The Night The World Changed Forever
by hoeft
Summary: The meeting at New Hope Church the night of the Rapture.
1. Chapter 1

**THE NIGHT THE WORLD CHANGED FOREVER**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Left Behind series or any of the characters. They are the exclusive property of Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins.

This is sort of a filler fic about the meeting at New Hope Church the night of the Rapture. As much as I enjoyed _The Rapture_ (book #3 in the prequel series), I was disappointed that they didn't go into more details about Bruce Barnes' experiences that night. Therefore I decided to write this story to fill in some of the details.

Bruce Barnes' mind was racing as he ran from one bedroom to another already knowing what he would find as he pulled back each set of covers. Sure enough in each bed he found one set of children's pajamas. Then under his own covers he found his wife's nightgown and jewelry.

Frantically he called Pastor Billings number and heard: "_Hello. You have reached Vernon Billings..._" He started dialing other numbers from the church directory at random and either got an answering machine or the phone rang off the hook. He hesitated when he got to Loretta's name. "Don't be ridiculous" he told himself. "Of course she's gone. You're the only one from the staff... No, make that the entire church who isn't in Heaven right now." He grabbed his car keys and headed out to his car.

As he pulled into the church parking lot he was stunned to see another car already there. It looked like... No! It couldn't be Loretta's car! He jumped out of his car with the engine still running and ran towards the other car. Loretta must have recognized his car as well for she had jumped out of her car. He saw that she was still wearing her bath robe and curlers in her hair. "Pastor Barnes!! You're still here!!"

"Yes" he replied. "Has anyone else showed up yet? I tried calling the pastor and a few others but I either got the answering machine or else the phone rang off the hook. Come on in the church. We'd better be prepared in case anybody else shows up".

"How could you have been left behind when..." Loretta started to ask as they entered New Hope. She started to sob again. "I have no right to condemn you. I've been living as a phony for over fifty years. I didn't even think about my personal faith until I was in my late teens. By then I was too embarrassed to admit to anyone that I wasn't really saved. So I just went around pretending to be a spiritual giant fooling my husband, my children, my grandchildren and the all my other family and friends. Now they're all gone and I may never see them again either in this world or in the next."

Bruce could barely hold back his own tears as he thought of his wife and children now in heaven with Jesus. "I really thought that I was saved. I knew my life didn't quite measure up to God's standards, but I thought that if I just kept confessing my sins He would forgive me and everything would be alright. I never gave much thought to the other verses like Romans 6:1 and 2 that say we're not to continue in sin even thought God shows grace. My own behavior made me wonder at times whether I was really saved but I thought all Christians went through that periodically. Now my wife and children are in heaven without me."

They sat there looking at each other for several minutes. "What do we do now?" Loretta asked. "Is it too late for us"

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**THE NIGHT THE WORLD CHANGED FOREVER PART 2**

Bruce and Loretta were startled to see the headlights of a car pulling into the church parking lot. "Who could this be? Who else could have been left behind?" asked Bruce. He got to the door and saw Donny and Sandy Moore coming up the front walk. Donny stopped stunned when he saw Bruce and Loretta standing in the doorway.

"You're both still here? I was sure Sandy and I were the only ones left." "We were thinking the same thing" said Bruce. "As far as I know, at this point, the rest of the staff is gone. I couldn't call everybody in the congregation, of course, but nobody that I did call answered."

"What about your wife and children?" asked Donny. "All four of them are gone. Loretta's entire family is gone too. Is your son gone?" "Yes. Sandy left him for a few minutes to go get his bottle from the refrigerator and when she came back only his pajamas were left in his crib."

He put his head down and cried. "Here I'm supposed to have this genius IQ and yet I was so spiritually blind. I've been coming to this church for years and I still managed to miss the whole message of the Gospel."

"How do you think I feel?" asked Bruce. "I've gone through bible college. I've been preaching the Gospel message for years. But I never received Jesus for myself. Every week I'd watch Pastor Billings give an invitation and see people come forward to receive Christ. I don't know why I didn't think that I needed to do that myself".

"What happens now?" asked Donny. "Have we missed our last chance to go to heaven?" "I don't know"answered Bruce. "I've heard some preachers say that if you heard the Gospel before the Rapture and rejected it, you won't get a second chance afterwards. Some even say that nobody at all will get a second chance after the Rapture."

"What about Pastor Billings' videotape?" asked Donny. "You know the one featuring his favorite sermon on the Rapture. He put it in the church vault and said to take it out if everyone else had disappeared. I guess he knew that some of us were just playing church, just pretending to be Christians."

"I completely forgot about that tape!" exclaimed Bruce. "That should tell us if there's any hope for those of us who missed the Rapture. I'll go get it and be right back."

Minutes later the four of them were sitting in Pastor Billings office, their eyes glued to the screen as the pastor explained what would happen in the seven years left until the return of Jesus Christ and that those left behind still had hope of salvation. Finally all four came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now they could have true hope for the first time in their lives and hope for the seven tumultuous years that lay ahead.

The End.


End file.
